As it reaches 50 years since the Chrysler Valiant Pacer rolled off an Australian production line, a one-off Chrysler 300 SRT Pacer has been built by Chrysler Australia to pay tribute.
Based on a Chrysler 300 SRT Core, the tribute car pays homage to Australia’s love for fast, rear-wheel drive four-door sedans – even with the growth of SUV’s, the likes of the Kia Stinger, BMW M3 and Mercedes-Benz C63S show there’s plenty of love for this segment.
The original Valiant Pacer, considered fast for its time, produced 130kW of power from its ‘slant six’ engine and was paired with a 3-speed manual gearbox. Thankfully, the tribute vehicle is more representative of a reasonably priced performance car with a 6.4 HEMI V8 producing 350kW of power and 370Nm of torque. The transmission is also a ZF 8-speed automatic featuring launch control.
The Wild Yellow wrap, representing one of three original colours available, on the Chrysler 300 SRT Pacer tribute also features the black exterior side strips and red highlights on the grille and boot lid. The ‘Pacer 225’ decals from the original has been updated to ‘Pacer 392’ to represent the cubic inch of the larger HEMI V8.
Chrysler Australia also revealed that they will be producing a limited edition production version of the tribute vehicle, but no pricing or release information is available yet.
